Barrel heat

[Buck Kramer]

How hot does your barrel have to be before you actually damage your rifle? I have a Bulgy AK-47 I was shooting at the range the other day that got WAY hot after a few mags. I just had it built recently and did not want to shoot the rifling out of a brand new gun. I kept the shooting down to 1 mag a minute. Am I just being a pansy or is there an actual round per minute suggestion?

 

[animator]

My vote is for pansy.



I've shot one of mine to the point of melting the synthetic handguard. It's still dead-nuts accurate and the rifling is just as strong as it was when new.


I've shot FA to the point of setting wood handguards on fire, and not caused any damage to the barrel, although that particular AK is certainly not a tack-driver by any means.


Unless you're shooting to the point that the barrel is glowing and starting to droop, it is unlikely that you are going to cause any serious harm to it out casually plinking.

 

[Ari3sgr3gg0]

When shooting my friends ak I noticed an actual heat cloud coming off the barrel when we were just rapid firing it(semi auto, used fast trigger pulls). Never seemed to hurt it though I'd not want to even be within an inch or two of it from the heat

 

[Flyin2low]

On Sons of Guns TV show they got a glowing orange 732F on the barrel of a AR15 by firing 200 rounds on Auto.

 

[Z-Michigan]

You don't get immediate damage until about 800 F. for 4140 steel and a bit hotter for 4150 or CMV steel.

All shooting causes wear and wear is greatly accelerated at higher barrel temperatures. So a barrel that might last 10k rounds of really slow fire might last only 7k of moderately fast fire and 4k of very fast fire. With a full auto it is possible to destroy a barrel in a few minutes of continuous firing - truly continuous firing.

Put simply, shooting faster will slightly increase wear but you won't cause actual immediate damage unless you put a strong effort into doing so - and it will still take at least a couple hundred rounds.